Historic vote invites nurses to join doctors' sexual health faculty

The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, which represents doctors working in sexual and reproductive health, has voted to widen its membership to include nurses.

At an extraordinary general meeting on 21 November, the faculty unanimously agreed that from January nurses will be able to become full members of the FSRH on completion of a new diploma.

Nurses will have the opportunity to apply for the newly developed FSRH qualification – a nurse diploma and letters of competence – in order to become members from 6 January 2014. It will mean nurse representation on the faculty’s council with voting rights.

Qualified nurses must complete the diploma to become a full FSRH member, as is the current situation for doctors wishing to join the organisation.

In a statement announcing the move, the faculty said the decision to extend its membership reflected “the key role that nurses play in the delivery of sexual health care”, and its desire to promote multi-disciplinary working.

It added that there was currently no equivalent qualification to the FSRH diploma nationally recognised for nurses.

Shelly Mehigan, a nurse specialist in contraception, who helped develop the diploma, said: “There has been concern for a long time about a lack of nationally recognised training for nurses and this is a welcome step forward for patient care.

“Contraception and sexual health has always been a multi-disciplinary field, which is underpinned by these new national qualifications.”

Professor Viv Bennett, the director of nursing at the Department of Health and Public Health England, said it was “fantastic” that the faculty was “valuing the key roles of nurses”.

The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare – formerly called the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare – is part of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was established in March 1993. It has over 14,000 medical members, most of whom are GPs.

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Readers' comments
(4)

Anonymous | 25-Nov-2013 2:18 pm

Another unfortunate NT Headline. There have been a few lately. Have you employed some Red Top journos recently?

But most nurses are left-wing, so this will probably mean more abortion advice, which is already being used as a form of contraception. The Morning After Pill is a form of prevention of ovum fertilization, but when it has already been fertilized, it causes an abortion. Young girls,whose bodies are not ready for "adult" activity and the trauma abortion must cause, physically and mentally, are being deceived into thinking they can be free and easy with as many lads as they like and are safe from pregnancy, from which they are not 100% safe, and even less safe from STD's. Nurses should encourage young folk to abstain until the right person comes along and then get married. (I await the out-cry and the roaring that I know will now flow my way, but I don't care-times are bad and pressures high on kids. They need time to grow, time to get a good education, respect for their bodies and for each other-its too much too soon.)

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